Tag Archives: Orbit Brewery

Cue Point London @ Orbit Brewery

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Frequent Runoff readers are aware that we have our own micro independent brewery right here in Greater Kennington (Walworth) and we’re fans (Read our review here). Mind you, we could be bigger fans of their tadziki flavoured beer but you can’t have everything in life and we respect that culinary endeavour. Orbit has rotating guest chefs and for quite some time the kitchen has been home to Cue Point London, an acclaimed and delicious street food brand specialising in Afghan BBQ and brisket.  

Under the sobriquet of ‘gorgeous and very hungry members of the public’, KR staff got chatting with chef and Cue Point founder Mursal Saiq and she informed us that she was born in Afghanistan, lived in India, and is now based in the UK. Her menus embrace these backgrounds with huge inspiration from recipes passed down from her mother. Everything is made either on site or in a nearby kitchen (including the to die for naan bread), and Mursal added with enthusiasm that one objective of Cue Point is to help refugees and immigrants in the hospitality sector. We’re hooked already, so let’s eat….

Cedric, our office junior who needs to work on his timekeeping, went for the headline item on the menu: 14 hr Oak Smoked Beef Brisket Steak served with Afghan naan, jalapeño jam and Chef’s pickles. Cedric claims to have travelled extensively in the southern US and noted that the four large slabs of brisket, showing good bark (burned edges), resembled closely what he had seen in the BBQ joints there. The meat was very moist from a long, slow cooking. The Afghan twist was in being served on flat naan and with a spicier sauce than you’ll find in Texas. 

Your scribe had the naan taco mix featuring thee tacos presented in naan bread. The vegan taco was based on a smoky aubergine and pickle and Mursal informed us that she even makes her own vegan mayo. The other was generously crammed with the brisket that Cedric ordered, and a surprisingly smoky and almost sweet chicken was the main feature of the third.  Thoroughly yummy, including the little pickles to cut through some of the richness. At £15 these mains were good value: higher quality than, say, Bodean’s yet at a lower price.

To add to our carnivorous evening we had cheese and herb croquettes and cheesy potato skins, which weren’t skins as much as they were giant potatoes anointed with gooey cheese. Cue Point make all their sauces in house, and they’re all great. Double down on the Afghan chutney, jalapeno jam, and aioli for dipping everything in. And in the unlikely event that there’s any left over, take the sauce home but you’ll probably be drinking it by the time you get to Kennington Lane. But don’t take our work for it, as even foodie god Jay Rayner is in on the act.

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Elephant Sounds

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Short notice klaxon! We’ve just been made aware of what appears to be a fun music activity that has its inaugural run in Elephant Park tomorrow (that’s Saturday, 12 August). We felt particularly excited by the huge number of exclamation points in the press release. 

The event in question is called Elephant Sounds and is described as the summer’s newest outdoor music event and party (!) and is being curated by Chris Greenwood (!) from Little Louis. Frankly we’ve never heard of this dude but he’s clobbered together a number of interesting sounding DJ’s and international acts. On the refreshment front our very own local brewery Orbit (!) will be on hand in addition to Rosey Hue pub, Bobo Social and….winning the best name of 2023 award….Feed the Yak pub. 

This day looks like it could be a good crack, but if it this turns out to be the opposite of fun please don’t come crying to us as we know little about it. More info can be found in the link and the diverse, eclectic lineup is below. Did we mention that it’s free? Have we mentioned that we love free? 

The details
When: Saturday August 12, 2023, 12pm-8pm
Where: Elephant Park, SE17 1GD

12pm Cal Jader – DJ (Latin)
1:30pm – 3pm Camberwell Connection – DJ (Reggae)  
3:30pm – 4:30pm Baque De Axe – Live music (Brazilian)
4:30pm – 6pm Natty Bo – DJ (Ska Mambo Cumbia) 
6pm – 8pm Cubafrobeat! Lokkhi Terra featuring Dele Sosimi – Live music (Cuban/Afrobeat)

Lightnin’ Hot Things @ Orbit

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We recently paid a visit to Greater Kennington’s (Walworth) own local brewery ‘Orbit’ on a hot sunny day to inspect their Sunday roast offerings. The roast and indeed all the food on offer at Orbit are provided by the chefs of ‘Lightnin Hot Things’ (below) who run a very experimental kitchen in one corner of the brewery. It’s actually quite remarkable that they produce such a range of food in such a proscribed space.  We sampled some of their other offerings a few months ago and you can read about them and the beers here. 

There were four of us on our visit but it was almost three, as Doug from IT was pretty sure the guy in the middle of this photo was the same person who mugged him in Soho in 2018. When we convinced him that this was pretty unlikely we had enough people to enjoy a variety of the roasts on offer.  Our booked table was initially outside, but when we pointed out that we’d rather not end our meal resembling their acclaimed pickled beetroot, the chipper barman moved us indoors and with its makeshift plywood seating created a distinct elbows on tables experience. 

Doug opted for the lamb shoulder which was generous, soft, flavourful and dolloped with mint sauce. All roasts come with an enormous Yorkshire pudding, and owing to its juicy and crispy quality it hadn’t been anywhere near Aunt Bessie. Other sides were great too – its always good to see Savoy cabbage, tasty roast carrots too and caramelised onions on a plate. And the confit garlic was a nice surprise touch. 

  • Chicken
  • Beef
  • Lamb

Your scribe indulged in the herb fed chicken topped with two chunks of chicken crackling. The chicken was moist and bountiful- just about cooked perfectly.  From the gravy I received a distinct hit of rosemary and garlic,  and  given its meaty and flavourful nature obviously owed none of its heritage to Bisto and a kettle. The sides were the same as Doug’s with the addition of what seemed like a very nutty butter puree. Another of our party had the rump of beef roast, which had obviously been slow cooked and melted in the mouth. Overall these were well worth the £18.50 price. 

If you don’t fancy the Sunday roasts, the Lightnin’ Hot Things boys offer up some pretty avant garde fair during the week such as octopus salad and curried coconut. We’ve commented on the beers in previous posts, but as its summer the current favourite at the moment is, hang on……tzatziki flavoured beer. We tried some and it had zesty, cucumber notes and it rather reminded us of cider. With this observation the chipper barman became slightly less chipper, saying ‘no, this is not cider’. 

Orbit Brewery

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As the long weekend beckons we thought we would tell you about our recent visit our very own local microbrewery Orbit, located in a pocket of Walworth in the very precipice of the Greater Kennington catchment area. If you’re  a dedicated KR fan (and if not you’re missing out) you’ll remember that we visited the place last September but rather slammed them on the food front. We wanted to give them a shot at redemption, plus getting us into a brewery isn’t exactly a chore for us. 

Orbit is primarily about beers, and your scribe started with the Belgian pale ale ‘Peel’. It was a very hoppy offering with notes of pepper/clove, and also bits of citrus and lime. I still swear that at the end I got a hit of Colgate Total, but my unfeeling colleagues only laughed and questioned when I last brushed. Unfeeling colleague one started with a limited edition Cuvée de Cologne, served as a 2/3 pint size. It’s their Koln lager but given an extra twist that, for said colleague, gave it a Belgian lambic taste. Delicious. Equally distinctive was the Dead Wax London Porter, had by the other colleague, one of their core pint offerings, rich and dark as a Porter should be with a chocolate caramel character. What they seem to be doing at Orbit is to experiment and make their offerings as diverse as possible. And in case you were wondering, they do serve tadzitki flavoured beer.

On the food front, we were keen to improve on their Challah bap ‘adventure’ of a few months ago and we weren’t disappointed. We indulged in a king size plate of fried pork belly with negroni rhubarb and confit fennel. It was a great and bold mix of punchy flavours with the pork more or less melting even before it hit our tongues. Also looking good was ox cheek lasagne and Cretan bread salad. When your scribe asked where he gets his inspiration he said ‘I just make it up’….Respect! They also have a rather exciting looking Sunday roast which we are keeping our KR eyes attuned to. 

If you live in Walworth you’ve probably seen Orbit beers popping up in places like the retro video game pub Four Quarters and in Littlle Louis, the only bar/restaurant where you can actually buy the furniture. And if you’re still staying safe at home, of if people just don’t like going out with you, as Orbit is a brewery you can buy all the beer you want to take away and mixed up some cases for home consumption.